(Night. DETECTIVE MILES, whom we have not seen since Season 1, The Pilot, is riding in his patrol car in the small town of Bellefleur, Oregon. His lights are flashing, siren on. He listens as a report comes over the radio.)

DEPUTY RAY HOESE: (voice on radio) Unit four-- I got a fire out on the horizon. Something burning out here at the 20-mile marker.

DISPATCHER: (voice on radio) Unit four, confirmation of downed aircraft burning. All units, you've got a 10-13.

(DETECTIVE MILES looks a little nervous as he picks up his radio.)

DETECTIVE MILES: (on radio) Unit four-- this is Detective Miles. I'm coming right at you, Ray. Now, you wait for backup before you head out, all right? (no answer) Unit four-- come back, Deputy.

(There is no answer. The computer flashes, the digital car clock begins running backwards. DETECTIVE MILES has a frustrated, yet resigned look on his face. Suddenly, all power leaves DETECTIVE MILES' car. The dashboard goes out, the engine shuts off, the brakes do no respond, just as MULDER and SCULLY experienced on their visit in 1993. DETECTIVE MILES looks up as his vehicle slams into another patrol car sitting dark in the middle of the road. DETECTIVE MILES gets clumsily out of his car. His forehead is gashed. A large fire is burning in the forest nearby. He looks in the other car.)

DETECTIVE MILES: Deputy Hoese... Ray?

(A young balding man, DEPUTY RAY HOESE, is sitting collapsed in the drivers seat. His eyes are burned as if with acid. We can't tell if he is dead, or merely unconscious.)

DETECTIVE MILES: Oh, my God.

(He closes the door and steps in a small bubbling puddle of green goo that eats like acid at his shoe. He turns slowly to see what looks like the same man, DEPUTY RAY HOESE, staring at him.)

(X-Files office. A bald, glasses-wearing, self-important, accountant-looking guy, SPECIAL AGENT CHESTY SHORT is sitting next to a large pile of files. He is running an adding machine tape.)

SPECIAL AGENT CHESTY SHORT: Lariat car rentals. Totals...

(SPECIAL AGENT CHESTY SHORT looks at the total and whistles at the amount.)

SPECIAL AGENT CHESTY SHORT: Would you like to see the figure?

(He hands the tape to MULDER who glances at it and hands it back.)

MULDER: Is that a lot?

SPECIAL AGENT CHESTY SHORT: A lot? Gas, expenses... the motel rooms alone. By FBI standards these numbers are out of control.

MULDER: (deadpan) We could start sharing rooms.

(Pause as SPECIAL AGENT CHESTY SHORT stares at MULDER, unamused.)

SPECIAL AGENT CHESTY SHORT: You're under evaluation. There has to be a point when we say no.

MULDER: You can't really compare what we do to other departments in the Bureau.

SPECIAL AGENT CHESTY SHORT: Right. This business with aliens.

MULDER: Well, there's more to it than that.

SPECIAL AGENT CHESTY SHORT: But, at the end of the day you'd say aliens are your real focus.

MULDER: (defensive) That's the reason I got started, yeah.

SPECIAL AGENT CHESTY SHORT: (looking at a file) Investigating your sister's abduction and the government conspiracy around it. Both of which have been resolved, correct?

MULDER: Nothing has been resolved exactly.

SPECIAL AGENT CHESTY SHORT: (unsympathetic) In this case report here it's concluded your sister is dead as well as the men who took her. This is your handwriting here on the report, Agent Mulder?

(SPECIAL AGENT CHESTY SHORT shows MULDER the file. Again, MULDER glances at it.)

MULDER: Yeah.

SPECIAL AGENT CHESTY SHORT: So, what exactly is left to investigate?

(Very crowded prison full of angry Arabic men yelling and whistling lasciviously as a WOMAN WITH NICE LEGS is led down the corridor by a PRISON GUARD. They stop at a cell. The PRISON GUARD yells in Arabic. KRYCEK, missing his prosthetic arm, shoulders his way to the front of the cell. Life has not been good to him this last year. He stares at the WOMAN. It is MARITA COVARRUBIAS, looking much better than we saw her last. Her blonde hair is longer and her face is clear. She looks at KRYCEK steadily.)

MARITA COVARRUBIAS: Your release has been arranged.

KRYCEK: Marita Covarrubias. The last time I saw you, I left you for dead.

MARITA COVARRUBIAS: Alex, if it was strictly up to me, I'd leave you here to rot, too.

(The cell is unlocked for KRYCEK to exit.)

SPECIAL AGENT CHESTY SHORT: I see the money bleed out, but it just doesn't seem to make the results of your work any better. So many of the cases you investigate are left unexplained. Makes it hard to justify the expense.

SCULLY: So much of the work that we do cannot be measured in standard terms.

SPECIAL AGENT CHESTY SHORT: How would you measure it?

SCULLY: We open doors with the X-Files, which lead to other doors.

SPECIAL AGENT CHESTY SHORT: (reading disdainfully from a file) Doors leading to... "A conspiracy of men who cooperated with alien beings to create human alien hybrids." So we could all become slaves of an alien invasion.

SCULLY: (directly) I believe that there was once a conspiracy. I believe I was taken by men who subjected me to medical tests, which gave me cancer and left me barren.

SPECIAL AGENT CHESTY SHORT: But you don't believe in aliens?

SCULLY: I've seen things that I cannot deny.

KRYCEK: Who sent you?

MARITA COVARRUBIAS: The Smoking Man. He is dying.

(Wet KRYCEK looks over at her sharply.)

(Later. MULDER enters SPECIAL AGENT CHESTY SHORT's office. He is definitely not happy to be there.)

MULDER: You said you were finished.

SPECIAL AGENT CHESTY SHORT: Turned in my report and was asked to go over a few things.

(SPECIAL AGENT CHESTY SHORT indicates for MULDER to sit. MULDER remains standing.)

SPECIAL AGENT CHESTY SHORT: As you know-- the times we live in-- the world is changing fast.

MULDER: I'm missing your point.

SPECIAL AGENT CHESTY SHORT: As I said, this is an evaluation, Agent Mulder to understand what you do. So, if you go forward, you can do so more responsibly.

(MULDER sits.)

MULDER: That sounds more like a threat.

SPECIAL AGENT CHESTY SHORT: Cost/benefit analysis. But, if you want the truth I really don't care one way or the other. You mostly record bizarre facts on bizarre cases. In other words, information gathering. Something, it seems to me you can easily do on the Internet.

MULDER: I can't do my job from an office, I promise you.

SPECIAL AGENT CHESTY SHORT: Nowadays, the most advanced space exploration is done sitting in an office, Agent Mulder. Why? It's just too damn expensive putting men in outer space.

MULDER: I'm not looking in outer space.

SPECIAL AGENT CHESTY SHORT: Bringing us to the point. If you spend so much time and money looking for aliens, responsibly, you should narrow your search.

MULDER: To where?

SPECIAL AGENT CHESTY SHORT: Wherever they are. It's not unreasonable. It's just a matter of reducing your vision.

(MULDER glares at SPECIAL AGENT CHESTY SHORT.)

(Morning. An older model compact car pulls up beside the two wrecked police cars. Two young men, GARY and RICHIE get out and see DETECTIVE MILES, a nasty cut on his forehead coming out of the forest.)

RICHIE: Hey, you all right?

DETECTIVE MILES: What's the problem?

GARY: Isn't that your car, Mr. Miles?

DETECTIVE MILES: Yeah. A small accident. Everything's all right. What are you boys doing out here?

RICHIE: Well, uh, we heard there was a plane crash-- military jet fighter collided midair with a UFO.

DETECTIVE MILES: The Navy found their plane about three miles away. We've seen no evidence of any other crash.

RICHIE: But we heard a sheriff say he saw a fire burning off the highway at the 20-mile mark.

DETECTIVE MILES: There's nothing out here. No fire. No sign of fire. You boys go on home. There's nothing to see here.

(DETECTIVE MILES heads for his car. The two young men look into the woods.)

(X-Files office. SCULLY is looking at the "I Want To Believe" poster. MULDER joins her. He looks sheepish.)

MULDER: I think I'm in big trouble.

SCULLY: Oh, Mulder, how many times have they tried to shut us down?

MULDER: Yeah, but I never actually assaulted an auditor before.

(SCULLY stares at him in surprise, but certainly not disappointed in him, and perhaps a little amused.)

SCULLY: Did you hurt him?

MULDER: I reduced his vision a little bit.

(The phone rings and MULDER answers it on speakerphone.)

MULDER: (into phone) Mulder.

MALE VOICE: (on phone) Agent Fox Mulder?

MULDER: (into phone) Speaking.

MALE VOICE: (on phone) My name is Billy Miles. I don't know if you remember me.

(It is BILLY MILES from the Pilot, seven years ago. He is seven years older.)

MULDER: Oregon, seven years ago. You had multiple abduction experiences. I'm here with Agent Scully.

SCULLY: (into phone) Billy, are you all right?

BILLY MILES: (on phone) Yeah. This may seem weird, me calling like this, but, um, I don't know where else to turn.

MULDER: (into phone) It happening again, Billy?

(In BILLY MILES's house we hear a door open and DETECTIVE MILES enters the house.)

BILLY MILES: (on phone) Yeah, but not to me this time.

(BILLY MILES hangs up unobtrusively as his father enters the room.)

(In the X-Files office, MULDER hangs up at the sound of the dial tone. SCULLY looks up at him.)

MULDER: (tempting) More alien abductions, Scully.

SCULLY: (thoughtfully) I don't know how we could possibly justify the expense.

MULDER: We'd probably turn up nothing.

SCULLY: Let's go waste some money.

(As they leave the office, SCULLY has a small smile. MULDER picks up his coat and follows her, also smiling.)

(Shot of a man and a woman walking up a flight of stairs which could be MULDER and SCULLY walking out of the basement, but it is actually … )

(…. KRYCEK and MARITA COVARRUBIAS walking up the steps of ….)

THE WATERGATE APARTMENTS
WASHINGTON, DC

(MARITA COVARRUBIAS and KRYCEK arrive at one of the rooms in the hotel, #2645, they look at each other and knock. A blonde woman, NURSE GRETA, opens the door.)

NURSE GRETA: Hi. He's anxious to see you.

(MARITA COVARRUBIAS and KRYCEK enter the room. NURSE GRETA goes to a man in a wheelchair and turns him around. It is the CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN. He is looking really bad. His face has no color and he has an artificial voice box installed in his throat. He smiles rather sickly at them. They look at him in horror.)

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: I was worried about you, Alex.

KRYCEK: Cut the crap, old man.

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: I heard about your incarceration.

KRYCEK: (angrily) You had me thrown in that hellhole.

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: For trying to sell something that was mine, was it not? I hope we can all move forward... Put the past behind us. We have a... singular opportunity now.

KRYCEK: A singular opportunity?

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: (pitifully excited) There's been a crash in Oregon. An alien ship has collided with a military aircraft. Recovery is all-important. It's Roswell and Corona all over again-- 50 years later. It's our chance to rebuild the project.

(In the background, NURSE GRETA light a cigarette and gives it to CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN who puts it reverently into the inhaler apparatus of the artificial voice box and gratefully inhales the smoke. Ewwww. MARITA COVARRUBIAS and KRYCEK are also disgusted.)

MARITA COVARRUBIAS: How do you know someone hasn't already recovered it?

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: It's never quite so easy.

(Oregon woods. RICHIE and GARY are walking around. RICHIE is carrying some kind of Geiger counter/radiation detector thing and a large metal flashlight. Gary just has a flashlight. The readout on the counter is bouncing around, static is loud.)

RICHIE: I'm getting something here, Gary.

GARY: I told you, Richie.

(They walk in different directions. GARY walks into a clearing that looks eerily similar to the clearing in the Pilot episode. As he steps into the center of the clearing, he rises a few feet off the ground and his entire body begins shaking rapidly to the sound of an eerie, low-pitched vibration. Meanwhile, RICHIE is shining his flashlight around the clearing. He stares as the beam is distorted in the middle of the clearing.)

RICHIE: Hey, man. Look at this.

(No response.)

RICHIE: Gary! Gary?

(There is a bright white light behind a tree.)

RICHIE; Come on, man.

(RICHIE looks into the clearing, but GARY is gone. RICHIE's counter is off the scale and his flashlight begins glowing red hot. He gasps and drops it as it bursts into flame. RICHIE runs out of the forest.)

(MULDER and SCULLY pull up in front of either the Sheriff's Department or the MILES' residence. Silver Lariat rental car, license plate, Oregon FAZ-203. They get out of the car as BILLY MILES comes to greet them warmly, shaking each of their hands.)

BILLY MILES: Agent Mulder and Agent Scully.

MULDER: Look who's wearing a badge.

BILLY MILES: I've never thought of myself as a cop but it's been three years now. My dad got them to fudge the psych qualifications.

(He touches his forehead. SCULLY notices BILLY MILES' wedding ring.)

SCULLY: You're married, Billy.

BILLY MILES: Uh, divorced. I live back with my dad now.

MULDER: You've never, um... have you ever been able to get over the abductions?

BILLY MILES: Well, I have. But, um, people haven't. No one really believes it. My dad still denies it ever happened-- that any one of us was taken.

MULDER: Does he deny that it's happening now?

BILLY MILES: There was a crash. A Navy pilot hit an unidentified aircraft outside of town. Now, the military found their jet but the other craft hasn't been recovered.

SCULLY: Why not?

BILLY MILES: It's our county and we're in charge of coordinating efforts but my dad has really been no help even though we have a deputy missing.

MULDER: You find the UFO and he won't be able to deny the truth.

BILLY MILES: I hope that's all it is.

(DETECTIVE MILES drives up in his dented patrol car. He opens the car with the outside handle, gets out and approaches the others suspiciously.)

DETECTIVE MILES: What's going on, Bill?

BILLY MILES: Just talking to some people you might remember, Dad, from the FBI.

SCULLY: Agent Scully, Agent Mulder.

(DETECTIVE MILES shakes MULDER's hand. He is not overly friendly.)

DETECTIVE MILES: What brings you folks out here? You're not thinking this incident's some kind of UFO?

MULDER: Crash of an unidentified craft.

DETECTIVE MILES: Well, I've been on with the FAA. You might want to follow up. Looks an awful lot like there was no crash at all.

(SCULLY and MULDER looks at him. BILLY MILES looks at the ground.)

(MULDER and SCULLY follow DETECTIVE MILES and BILLY MILES to the crash site. They get out of their cars and look down at the road. A faded orange "X" is painted on the pavement. What's that white thing that landed on it? There are also two long fresh skid marks on the road.)

MULDER: Deja vu all over again.

DETECTIVE MILES: That was there already in case you're wondering at all about it.

SCULLY: I watched Agent Mulder paint that there seven years ago.

DETECTIVE MILES: What for?

MULDER: To mark an anomalous electrical disturbance-- the kind where time gets bent or goes missing or where your car loses power and dies in the middle of the road.

(MULDER and DETECTIVE MILES walk along the road while SCULLY goes to the side of the road.)

DETECTIVE MILES: These skid marks are mine.

MULDER: So, was the deputy's car up there sitting there without his lights on?

DETECTIVE MILES: Well, if they'd been on, I would have seen him.

MULDER: Good point.

(MULDER looks at the road. At the end of the skid marks is a hole in the pavement that looks like it was burned with acid. SCULLY has wandered off to the side of the road and found some shell casings.)

SCULLY: Detective? Did the, uh... deputy carry a .38?

(BILLY MILES comes over to her.)

BILLY MILES: .38 super. Why?

(SCULLY holds up one of the shells with a pair of tweezers.)

SCULLY: Three shells were discharged. I image they could have rolled from up there.

DETECTIVE MILES: What was he shooting at?

MULDER: Probably nothing.

DETECTIVE MILES: Nothing?

MULDER: (subtle sarcasm) Nothing's all you seem to find out here, Detective.

(SCULLY and BILLY MILES speak quietly as he holds open a evidence bag for her to drop the casings into.)

SCULLY: Was the missing deputy a good cop?

BILLY MILES: Yeah, sure, I guess.

SCULLY: Married? Single?

(DETECTIVE MILES notices them and calls over:)

DETECTIVE MILES: Bill! Come on over here with those!

BILLY MILES: (to SCULLY) Married. New baby.

(MULDER and SCULLY get into their car and drive off. BILLY MILES hands the bagged evidence to his father.)

BILLY MILES: You know, they only want to solve this.

DETECTIVE MILES: Get in the car, Bill.

(BILLY MILES gets in the car as DETECTIVE MILES opens the trunk. Inside the trunk is DETECTIVE MILES, eyes burned around the edges if by acid, or by exposure to the green blood of the aliens. He is either dead, or as CarriK believes, unconscious. DETECTIVE MILES tosses the evidence bag into the trunk and closes it again.)

(HOESE house. MULDER and SCULLY knock at the door. TERESA HOESE, nee NEMMANS – the girl from the Pilot, the one who bled from the nose in the restaurant – opens it. Like BILLY MILES, she is seven years older.)

TERESA HOESE: Yes?

SCULLY: (showing her badge) Sorry to bother you, Mrs. Hoese. We're with the FBI.

TERESA HOESE: Is this about my husband?

(MULDER recognizes her.)

MULDER: You're Teresa? Teresa Nemman?

TERESA HOESE: Yes.

MULDER: Seven years ago you came to Agent Scully and I for help. You were afraid of being abducted.

(She recognizes them.)

TERESA HOESE: Oh, my God.

(From inside the house, we hear a BABY crying. TERESA HOESE invites them in.)

TERESA HOESE: Please, come in.

(Short time later, MULDER and SCULLY sit facing TERESA HOESE as she holds her months old baby girl. Throughout the scene, SCULLY keeps glancing at the baby and MULDER keeps glancing at SCULLY.)

TERESA HOESE: I'm sorry... I sort of lost it when I realized who you were.

SCULLY: We, uh... we came to see if there's anything that you could tell us that might help to find your husband.

MULDER: We had no idea you were his wife.

TERESA HOESE: I don't know if it's important. Maybe I just hope it's not but Ray and I have a connection that's even deeper for us.

MULDER: He's an abductee, too?

TERESA HOESE: He kept it a secret from almost everyone. It doesn't make you real popular around here.

(The BABY on her lap cries. She quiets it by rubbing it's back.)

TERESA HOESE: His experiences were a lot more terrifying than mine. He was taken many times and tested. I have extensive medical records on him and photos of his scars. I'll get you the files.

(TERESA HOESE, I guess, sensing that SCULLY has been watching the BABY with affection, stands up and hands the BABY to her. SCULLY glances at MULDER, perhaps a little embarrassed, and then cuddles the child on her lap as TERESA HOESE goes in search of the files. SCULLY takes a rubber squeaky duck from the coffee table and shows it to the BABY.)

SCULLY: What do you see?

(The BABY refuses the duck, then takes it and squeezes it.)

SCULLY: What do you see?

(MULDER watches her wistfully as she begins singing softly a little off key:)

SCULLY: Once upon a time there was a little baby.

(MULDER's motel room. The room is very similar to that which he stayed in in the Pilot episode. Guess they rebuilt after the fire. He is lying on his bed looking at the files that TERESA HOESE gave them. Pictures of DEPUTY RAY HOESE, close-ups of the bruises on his wrists and elsewhere that he received during his multiple abductions. He looks up at a knock on his door.)

MULDER: Who is it?

SCULLY: (outside) It's me.

(MULDER opens the door. SCULLY, still dressed in a white blouse and slacks, stands in the doorway. MULDER is concerned.)

MULDER: What's wrong, Scully? You look sick.

SCULLY: I don't know what's wrong.

MULDER: Come in.

(MULDER draws SCULLY into the room and she sits huddled, shivering, on the bed. MULDER closes the door and goes to her.)

SCULLY: I, um... I was starting to get ready for bed and I started to feel really dizzy-- vertigo or something-- and then I just... I started to get chills.

(MULDER turns down the sheets and blankets on his bed.)

MULDER: You want me to call a doctor?

SCULLY: No, I just... I just want to get warm.

(SCULLY climbs onto the bed, pausing as MULDER takes off her shoes and drops them to the floor. She gets under the covers and MULDER tucks her in, then lies behind her and embraces her in a classic warm spooning cuddle. There is no shyness or hesitation. Both are very comfortable.)

SCULLY: Thank you.

(Pause. MULDER holds SCULLY.)

MULDER: It's not worth it, Scully.

(Long pause.)

SCULLY: What?

MULDER: I want you to go home.

SCULLY: Oh, Mulder, I'm going to be fine.

MULDER: No, I've been thinking about it. Looking at you tonight, holding that baby... knowing everything that's been taken away from you. A chance for motherhood and your health and that baby. I think that... I don't know, maybe they're right.

SCULLY: Who's right?

MULDER: The FBI. Maybe what they say is true, though for all the wrong reasons. It's the personal costs that are too high.

(SCULLY begins to cry silently. MULDER whispers gently into her ear.)

MULDER: There so much more you need to do with your life. There's so much more than this.

(He gently strokes her face as she cries.)

MULDER: (whisper) There has to be an end, Scully.

(He softly kisses her cheek and leans his head on her shoulder. SCULLY clasps his hand and holds it near her mouth.)

(Same time, outside the motel. KRYCEK is sitting in a car watching MULDER's hotel room. He is on his cell phone.)

KRYCEK: (on phone) In spite of a great deal of effort no one seems to be able to find this UFO of yours.

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: (on phone) Of course they can't.

KRYCEK: (on phone) You know why? 'Cause it's not here.

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: (on phone) It's there, Alex. I'm certain of it. Hidden in plain sight.

(NURSE GRETA finishes giving CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN a very graphic injection in his arm.)

KRYCEK: (on phone) You listen to me. If you're going to play games, the two of them, Mulder and Scully, they're going to beat me to it.

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: (on phone, surprised) Are you saying that Mulder and Scully are there looking for the UFO?

KRYCEK: (on phone) They're looking for a missing deputy.

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: (on phone) Well, they're looking for the right thing but in the wrong place.

KRYCEK: (on phone) You sent me looking for a ship.

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: (on phone, desperate) Find the deputy. Find the ship.

(HOESE house. TERESA HOESE in a bathrobe comes down the stairs and sees a man wearing a deputy's hat standing outside the door.)

TERESA HOESE: Who is it?

(The MAN rattles the door handle.)

TERESA HOESE: Ray?

(Gratefully, she opens the door. It is DEPUTY RAY HOESE. She embraces his warmly. His response is superficial.)

TERESA HOESE: Oh, my God. Oh, my God. I was so worried. I was so sure... what did they do to you this time?

(He looks at her.)

TERESA HOESE: Ray, talk to me.

(He looks at her. She backs away in terror.)

TERESA HOESE: You're not my husband.

(She runs upstairs. He follows at a slower, yet definite pace. As her rounds the landing, she whips around and stabs him in the chest with a kitchen knife, then recoils from the green fluid that oozes out of his chest. Her eyes are burnt from the fumes as she stumbles into the nursery where the BABY is crying loudly.)

TERESA HOESE: No! No!

(He follows her and picks her up and carries her screaming out of the room. The BABY wails.)

(Next morning. MULDER and SCULLY arrive at the HOESE house. Crime scene procedures underway. SCULLY watches as the BABY is carried out by a DEPUTY. They find BILLY MILES.)

MULDER: What happened, Billy?

BILLY MILES: Teresa's gone. She's been taken, and they took her.

SCULLY: How do you know?

BILLY MILES: The door was open.

(They follow BILLY MILES into the house and upstairs. In the nursery, MULDER sees something and calls SCULLY.)

MULDER: Scully... the floor. What do you see?

(She looks at it.)

MULDER: The same thing as out on the road. You've seen it before.

(It is a patch of carpet that has been burned through, as if by acid. SCULLY looks at it, then up at MULDER.)

SCULLY: Yeah. I have. We both have.

(MULDER leaves the room.)

BILLY MILES: What is it?

SCULLY: It's a biological toxin emitted as a gas through the bloodstream.

BILLY MILES: From who?

SCULLY: From what is arguably an alien.

(SCULLY gasps and almost faints. BILLY MILES catches her and looks at her with concern.)

BILLY MILES: You okay?

SCULLY: Yeah.

BILLY MILES: You sure?

SCULLY: Yeah, I'm fine, thanks.

(CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN's apartment. CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN takes a drag of a cigarette through his false voicebox. GRETA stands close by. MARITA COVARRUBIAS watches uncomfortably. She does not approve of the "treatment.")

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: Thank you, Greta.

MARITA COVARRUBIAS: Why the trouble? To bring Krycek here and then toy with him?

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: Do you trust Alex, Marita?

MARITA COVARRUBIAS: Then why bring him here at all?

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: You misunderstand. I've great faith that Alex will find the ship. But if I told him how, he'd be... he'd be tempted to sell the information.

MARITA COVARRUBIAS: And you're certain it's there?

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: Oh, yes. But it won't be there forever. It's rebuilding itself.

MARITA COVARRUBIAS: If he finds the ship, then what?

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: To possess it is to possess the answer to all things. Every possible imaginable question.

MARITA COVARRUBIAS: To God?

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: There's no God, Marita. What we call God is only alien-- an intelligence much greater than us.

MARITA COVARRUBIAS: They're coming here, aren't they?

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: They're only coming back.

(SCULLY comes out of the house and opens the passenger side door to join a silent MULDER. As she does, he opens his door and gets out.)

SCULLY: Mulder...

(MULDER stops RICHIE as they notice he is leaving the area quickly. SCULLY joins him.)

MULDER: Hey. Hey, what are you doing?

RICHIE: I was just standing there. Is that against the law?

(BILLY MILES has joined them.)

MULDER: You know this guy?

BILLY MILES: Yeah. What are you doing, Richie?

RICHIE: They took him, Billy. They took Gary. He was just gone.

MULDER: Relax. Slow down.

RICHIE: They're out there. I don't care what your dad says, Billy.

BILLY MILES: My dad?

RICHIE: He was out there, too. He knows.

(BILLY MILES runs away.)

(Oregon woods. RICHIE is leading MULDER and SCULLY to the area where GARY disappeared.)

RICHIE: I was shining my flashlight in the dark looking for the UFO and uh, the beam hit this spot in space-- like it bent the light.

MULDER: And then what happened?

RICHIE: Well, I yelled, "Gary!" And I looked... but he wasn't there, you know? He wasn't anywhere, man and then the flashlight got really hot and I dropped it. It's right around here somewhere.

(While MULDER talks to RICHIE, SCULLY has walked over to where we last saw GARY. As she steps into the center of the clearing, she also rises up and shakes impossible fast to the sound of an eerie, low-pitched vibration.)

(Meanwhile, RICHIE and MULDER find RICHIE's scorched flashlight.)

RICHIE: Oh, hey, here it is.

(MULDER realizes that SCULLY is not beside him.)

MULDER: Scully?

(He starts toward the clearing.)

MULDER: Scully?

(He sees her collapsed on the ground.)

MULDER: Scully.

(He gathers her gently into his arms, supporting her against his bent leg. She is very groggy and disoriented. He is very concerned.)

MULDER: You want some water?

RICHIE: What happened to her?

MULDER: Can you just get her some water?

(RICHIE goes to find some water. MULDER continues to hold SCULLY.)

SCULLY: I just... I just... I just hit the ground.

MULDER: Here, lie still.

SCULLY: Why is this happening to me?

MULDER: It's okay. It's okay.

SCULLY: What the hell's going on, Mulder?

MULDER: I don't know. But these aren't just random abductions, Scully. We've got to warn Billy Miles of that.

SCULLY: Warn him of what?

MULDER: These abductees aren't just systematically being taken. They're not coming back.

(MILES' house. BILLY MILES enters his house cautiously and draws his gun.)

BILLY MILES: Dad?

(He holds his gun at his father.)

DETECTIVE MILES: Billy... what are you doing?

BILLY MILES: You stay where you are.

DETECTIVE MILES: Billy, it's me.

BILLY MILES: I said, stay where you are!

DETECTIVE MILES: Damn it, Billy, listen to me.

BILLY MILES: No. I don't know who you are but you are not going to take me.

DETECTIVE MILES: I'm your father. Are you going to shoot your father?

BILLY MILES: If you're my father... then why won't you believe me?

DETECTIVE MILES: I believe you, Billy. I just want it all to go away. Give me the gun, son.

(BILLY MILES lowers the gun and begins to cry. DETECTIVE MILES takes the gun. He morphs into the ALIEN BOUNTY HUNTER, then looks out the window where MULDER and SCULLY are driving up.)

MULDER: Billy?

SCULLY: Billy?

(MULDER and SCULLY look at each other. MULDER shakes his head.)

(X-Files office. MULDER is alone fully reclined in his chair tossing and catching a basketball. SKINNER enters the office.)

SKINNER: Agent Mulder.

MULDER: What's our punishment this time? Thumbscrews or 40 lashes? Come on in, Walter. Sit a spell. This could be the last time you take a trip down to these offices.

(He looks up at SKINNER and sets the ball on the desk.)

SKINNER: You went to Oregon.

MULDER: Guilty as charged. And if they're coming down on you for that, then I'm sorry. I truly am.

SKINNER: Fortunately, they think that I make a contribution to the Bureau.

MULDER: (bitterly) Oh well yeah, stick to a budget they say your making a contribution, but push the limits of your profession, and they say you're out of control.

SKINNER: You could bring home a flying saucer and have an alien shake hands with the President … what it comes down to Agent Mulder is … they don't like you.

MULDER: Well, we didn't bring home a flying saucer … or an alien.

SKINNER: Yeah … so I've been told.

(MULDER nods dejectedly. SKINNER waves his companions into the office. KRYCEK and MARITA COVARRUBIAS. MULDER waits about 1.263 seconds and starts for KRYCEK. SKINNER stops him, holding his arms forcefully. MULDER backs off.)

SKINNER: Agent Mulder! I think you should listen to him.

KRYCEK: You've got every reason to want to see me dead. (SKINNER restrains MULDER again) But you've got to listen to me now. You have the singular opportunity.

MULDER: (challenging) Here or you want to step outside.

MARITA COVARRUBIAS: Agent Mulder. CancerMan is dying.

(MULDER looks at SKINNER who walks away.)

MARITA COVARRUBIAS: His last wish is to rebuild his Project, to have us revive the Conspiracy. It all begins in Oregon.

KRYCEK: The ship that collided with that Navy plane. It's in those woods.

MULDER: There's no ship in those woods.

KRYCEK: Yeah, it's there. Cloaked in an energy field. Great, mops up the evidence.

MULDER: Who?

KRYCEK: The Alien Bounty Hunter. Billy Miles. Teresa Hoese, her husband. He's eliminating proof of all the tests. We're asking ourselves, we're asking ourselves, "Where are they?" They're right there. They're right under our noses. I'm giving you the chance to change that, to hold the proof.

MULDER: Why me and why now

KRYCEK: I want to damn the soul of that Cigarette Smoking Son-of-a-Bitch.

(SCULLY appears in the doorway to the office.)

SCULLY: Mulder?

(Slow pan of the office as MARITA COVARRUBIAS , KRYCEK, SKINNER and MULDER look at her.)

(SKINNER's office. Conference area. The table is littered with papers, files and Chinese take-out containers. A most unlikely group is around the table. SKINNER, the LONE GUNMEN, KRYCEK, MARITA COVARRUBIAS, MULDER and a very uncomfortable SCULLY at one end of the table. He arms are crossed protectively.)

FROHIKE: What's amazing is that even the military satellites don't see it.

LANGLEY: But J.P.L.'S Topex Poseidon shows it only as waveform data.

BYERS: And here it appears simply as a microburst of transmission error on the European Space Agency's ERS-2.

SKINNER: In other words?

FROHIKE: In other words, you'd never know it's a UFO.

BYERS: If you didn't know what you were looking at or looking for.

LANGLEY: No wonder we couldn't see them.

KRYCEK: Listen, it is not going to be there forever.

MARITA COVARRUBIAS: As we all stand here talking it's rebuilding itself.

(SCULLY can't take any more and walks out of the office and paces the hall. MULDER follow her, closing the door behind him.)

SCULLY: Mulder, if any of this is true...

MULDER: If it is, or if it isn't I want you to forget about it, Scully.

SCULLY: (staring at him in disbelief) Forget about it?

MULDER: (firmly) You're not going back out there. I'm not going to let you go back out there.

SCULLY: What are you talking about?

MULDER: It has to end sometime. That time is now.

SCULLY: Mulder...

MULDER: Scully, you have to understand that they're taking abductees. You're an abductee. I'm not going to risk...

(He looks at her sadly, meaningfully, his voice breaking a little.)

MULDER: …. losing you.

(She walks slowly into his embrace. They cling tightly to each other.)

SCULLY: I won't let you go alone.

(Oregon woods. Next day? A Chevy Malibu LS, didn't see a Lariat sticker, parks. SKINNER pops the trunk and he and MULDER get out of the car.)

SKINNER: This is starting to feel like the snipe hunt I was afraid of.

(MULDER gets a backpack out of the trunk and starts off into the woods.)

MULDER: There's no such thing as a snipe, sir.

SKINNER: Hey, you know, my ass is on the line here, too, Agent Mulder.

MULDER: I know that.

(MULDER heads into the woods. SKINNER looks around, then follows.)

(SKINNER's office. SCULLY and the LONE GUNMEN are still looking through files. SCULLY looks at one with concern.)

SCULLY: This just can't be.

FROHIKE: What are you looking at?

SCULLY: Medical records-- Billy Miles and other known abductees in Bellefleur, Oregon. They all experienced anomalous brain activity.

BYERS: Electro-encephalitic trauma.

SCULLY: Which is exactly what Mulder experienced earlier this year.

LANGLEY: I don't understand.

SCULLY: There was something out there in that field. It knocked me back. Because it didn't want me. Mulder thinks that it's me that's in danger of being taken.

FROHIKE: When it's Mulder who's in danger.

(SCULLY looks weak and disoriented.)

SCULLY: Scully?

(SCULLY faints. The LONE GUNMEN catch her as she falls.)

GUNMEN: Scully! Whoa! You okay? Oh, gee.

SKINNER: How's it supposed to work?

MULDER: Not exactly sure, sir. But, uh...

(He checks a readout on a handheld device.)

MULDER: … budgetarily, I'd say we're looking pretty good.

(While SKINNER is occupied setting up a laser, MULDER goes into the enter of the clearing. The lasers all end in red dots against something invisible. MULDER cautiously sticks his hand into the invisibility. It begins shaking impossibly fast. To the sound of an eerie, low-pitched vibration.)

SKINNER: Agent Mulder?!

(SKINNER looks up. There is no sign of MULDER in the clearing.)

SKINNER: Mulder!

(We see MULDER, motionless in the clearing. Behind him, SKINNER is calling for him in a distorted voice.)

SKINNER: Mulder! Mulder...

(MULDER is standing just outside a pool of very white light that we last saw SCULLY standing in the The Red and the Black, season 5. Inside the circle are all the Oregon abductees, DEPUTY RAY HOESE , TERESA HOESE, BILLY MILES, DETECTIVE MILES, et al. MULDER hesitates a moment, then steps into the circle also. They welcome him warmly. He looks up at he bright light above. He is wearing SCULLY's gold cross. From the woods, the ALIEN BOUNTY HUNTER also steps confidently into the circle. He and MULDER look at each other, perhaps with recognition of what they are to do. The white light gets brighter and the screen goes white.)

(From SKINNER's point of view, a bright white light is coming out of the sky, then fades enough for him to see that it is coming from the belly of a triangle shaped ship that turns and soars off into the night sky. SKINNER's face is awed and anguished.)

SKINNER: Mulder.

(CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN's room. KRYCEK and MARITA COVARRUBIAS knock. NURSE GRETA lets them in. CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN is staring out the window, devastated.)

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: We've failed, then. Perhaps you never meant to succeed. Anyway... the hour is at hand, I presume.

(KRYCEK begins to wheel CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN out of the room. NURSE GRETA moves to stop him, but is halted by MARITA COVARRUBIAS.)

NURSE GRETA: What are you doing?

KRYCEK: Sending the Devil back to Hell.

(KRYCEK wheels the CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN to the top of a flight of stairs.)

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: As you do to Mulder and to me... you do to all of mankind, Alex.

(KRYCEK holds for a moment, then decisively pushes the man in his wheelchair down the stairs. CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN lies in a motionless, crumpled head at the foot of the stairs. KRYCEK and MARITA COVARRUBIAS descend the stairs and step over CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN on their way out of the building.)

(SKINNER enters a hospital and makes his way to SCULLY's room. She is lying on a bed with a pensive look on her face. She is wearing a blue hospital gown. She is not wearing her cross, having given it to MULDER off camera.)

SKINNER: Agent Scully.

SCULLY: Hi.

SKINNER: Hi. How you feeling?

SCULLY: I'm feeling fine. They're just running some tests on me.

SKINNER: Well... um...

(SKINNER's face twists in pain. He can't say it. SCULLY also looks about ready to cry.)

SCULLY: I already heard.

SKINNER: (voice breaking) I lost him. I don't know what else I can say. I lost him. I'll be asked... what I saw. And what I saw, I can't deny. I won't.

SCULLY: (crying) We will find him. I have to.

(SKINNER nods in understanding and starts out of the room. However, SCULLY isn't finished.)

SCULLY: Sir, um... there's something else I need to tell you. Something that I need for you to keep to yourself.

(He looks at her questioningly. She looks ready to either laugh or cry, but can't decide which.)

SCULLY: I'm having a hard time explaining it. Or believing it. But, um...

(Pause. A small inward smile of joy mixed with plenty of pain.)

SCULLY: I'm pregnant.

(SKINNER stares at her, speechless. She tries to smile. But through her tears, it comes out as a mixture of a laugh and a weak sob.)

[THE END]